Korea

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea achieved another scientific-technological breakthrough on Feb. 7, lofting a space satellite into orbit. It was propelled by a powerful rocket and, predictably, the U.S. government reacted as though sending up a satellite were an act of war....

Tensions on the Korean peninsula escalated in August as the U.S. carried out massive “war games” aimed at the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north. At the same time, the U.S. media said little about the 30,000 U.S. and 50,000 south Korean troops that were menacing the DPRK....

Thirty women peace activists from 15 countries crossed the demilitarized zone separating north and south Korea on May 24. They called for an official end to the Korean War, the signing of a peace treaty and the reunification of Korea....

How does someone living in a Muslim or Middle Eastern country feel about the furor raised over the attack on Charlie Hebdo, the French magazine? Can they not be keenly aware of this double standard in the media and politics of the so-called free, democratic world? Think about the Palestinians. They’re not for Al Qaeda, but they must be saying, “Where was this level of anger and condemnation when Gaza was being bombed every single day last summer by the Israelis? Don’t our lives matter?”
...

“We take seriously North Korea’s attack that aimed to create
destructive financial effects on a U.S. company and to threaten artists and
other individuals with the goal of restricting their right to free
expression,” said the White House....

In case anyone thought that Washington’s recent moves to modify its
policy toward Cuba mean the imperialist monster has suddenly mellowed, the
White House, State Department, FBI, CIA and Pentagon have all cleared up that
misunderstanding....

Often the corporate media use the term “international community” to give weight to an opinion that is really the opinion of a handful of imperialist heads of state — from the U.S., its major NATO allies and Japan. Since the Israeli assault on Gaza began, the real international community is coming out into the streets, sometimes defying police violence, to show its solidarity with Gaza and Palestine and protest....

Thousands of south Korean railroad workers ended their strike Dec. 30 after
three weeks of intense struggle against the right-wing, anti-labor regime of
President Park Geun-hye. It was the longest railroad strike in the history of
Korail, the national railroad company. This intense class conflict has now
moved to parliament, where a committee made up of the government and opposition parties will make decisions....

August 28, the National
Intelligence Service (NIS), formerly known as the Korean CIA, raided the
offices and homes of the Unified Progressive Party, which holds six seats in
South Korea’s National Assembly. Three members were arrested during the
raids, and lawmaker Lee Seok-ki was later stripped of immunity and placed under
arrest....

Detroiters are mobilizing to defend city workers’ pensions and city
services in the wake of the municipal bankruptcy filed by Emergency Manager
Kevyn Orr. This Wall Street bankruptcy attorney was appointed by
Michigan’s reactionary Gov. Rick Snyder to essentially act as a receiver
over the city, supplanting the elected mayor and City Council.

On Sept. 7, about 500 people attended a rally sponsored by U.S. Rep. John
Con­yers and chaired by Professor Michael Eric Dyson, with panelists
including the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit NAACP; City
Councilwoman Joann Watson; Al Garrett, president of American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25; and columnist Julianne
Malveaux. The speakers stressed the need for mass mobilization in the streets
to challenge the racist Wall Street attack on Detroit, a majority
African-American city....

Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — Even on
normal days, this magnificent city proudly wears its history on its sleeve.
There are monuments and buildings everywhere dedicated to the almost
unimaginable sacrifices the Korean people have made to safeguard their
independence from would-be conquerors....

The
International Action Center reprints below an official statement from the Korean
People’s Army on the dangerous situation created by U.S. military moves
close to the boundaries of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
— north Korea....

The shadow of war has hung over the Korean peninsula for six decades —
almost a lifetime. That is how long the Korean people have been waiting for a
peace treaty to be signed since the fighting ended in 1953....

There are facts, and then there is fiction. Let’s deal with the fiction first. In the fictional world reflected in Hollywood movies like the remake of “Red Dawn,” the socialist north of Korea launches a war against the United States, invading and killing many people. It would hardly be necessary to answer such a ridiculous fiction were it not for the fact that the corporate media are constantly coming up with alarming stories about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, picturing it as irrational, aggressive and ready to attack....

These are hard times. There doesn’t appear to be any respite coming soon. The political atmosphere has shifted in response to the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression. This crisis, because of how the changes in technology, communication and production have made the world smaller, is global in its impact....

he Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has drawn an important
conclusion from the unprovoked bombing of Libya by U.S. and NATO forces:
Developing countries should never let down their guard and believe promises
made by the imperialists....

The dangerous military crisis on the Korean peninsula has been defused for
the moment. The Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea did not retaliate,
even though the U.S. imperialists and their south Korean clients on Dec. 20
staged provocative live-fire exercises from Yeonpyeong Island, eight miles from
the mainland of the DPRK. The DPRK, which had warned of retaliation if the exercises went forward,
declared that the limited exercises carried out by the south Korean military
were “not worth it.” The U.S. and the south Korean regime were
shown up as military provocateurs willing to risk a major war....

The right-wing government in South Korea is once again threatening live-fire war “exercises” from an island right off the coast of north Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). The DPRK has made it very clear that this would be an act of war to which it would respond vigorously. A huge crisis is in the making. The U.S., which over the last month has been conducting joint naval exercises in the area with both Japan and South Korea, could tell its client state in Seoul to cancel these provocative military maneuvers. But instead, the U.S. again blocked any agreement to resolve the crisis during a day-long meeting of the Security Council at U.N. headquarters on Dec. 19....

Imperialist diplomacy is constructed on lies and secrets. No one is
surprised by the secrets. Few are surprised by the lies. Still, a sudden
exposure of the lies and secrets can arouse a strong political reaction....

On Nov. 23, the government of South Korea mobilized 70,000 troops for a week
of military maneuvers just off the border of the Democratic Peoples Republic of
Korea. The DPRK said that these military maneuvers simulated an invasion of the
north....

Scores of U.S. warships and fighter jets, carrying more than 6,000 crew members
and reinforced by ships, planes and 70,000 soldiers of the armed forces of
south Korea, began carrying out joint military “exercises” in the
sea west of Korea on Nov. 28. They have brought the divided peninsula to the
brink of war. In July some 20 U.S. warships and 200 planes had carried out
similar maneuvers with the armed forces of the south. So this is the second
time in less than six months that Washington and the right-wing south Korean
regime of Lee Myung-Bak have carried out a grave provocation against the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (socialist north Korea)....

On Nov. 23, the government of South Korea mobilized 70,000 troops for a week of military maneuvers just off the border of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. The DPRK said that these military maneuvers simulated an invasion of the north....

n Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped a four-ton uranium bomb on Hiroshima, only to follow that horrific attack by unleashing a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki three days later. The cities became infernos.

By the end of 1945, more than 250,000 people — men, women, children, mainly civilians — were dead. Many were incinerated instantly. People within a one-mile radius of Hiroshima were vaporized. Thousands died agonizing deaths soon after from burns, injuries and radiation poisoning. In subsequent years, more deaths occurred from cancers and other radiation-related diseases....

Two Korean groups in the United States — the pro-reunification,
community-based, grassroots organization Nodutdol and the National Campaign to
End the Korean War — held a joint cultural event in Washington, D.C., on
July 25 to call for a peace treaty between the U.S. and the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, often referred to by the U.S. media as north
Korea....

In 1945, two U.S. colonels in Washington D.C. divided the Korean peninsula
along the 38th parallel. This arbitrary divide soon became a border and
military frontline before and during the Korean War. An Armistice temporarily
ceased fighting on the Korean peninsula and established the Demilitarized Zone
(DMZ) along the 38th parallel. A peace treaty was never signed, and to this
day, Korea remains in a state of war....

Therefore, we call on the UN Security Council to not only resolve the matter
of the Cheonan fairly but also work towards the realization of a Peace Treaty
on the Korean peninsula. This will legally ensure peace on the Korean
peninsula, as well as contribute to global peace....

As we raised several times before, the purpose of
this redeployment is not to fight the war on terror, but it is instead a
humiliating submission to U.S. pressure that risks the security of Korean
people, and involves it in a bloody, amoral, war of aggression and occupation
for the ultimate purpose of installing a pro-U.S. regime....

Here’s how Koreans in the north look at the current situation
between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States,
based on conversations with a member of that country’s leading party, the
Workers Party of Korea....

Anyone in the United States who pays attention to the corporate news media
must think that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea just violated
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Right?
Except that no such treaty exists....

It is with great sadness that we learned today that our comrade and friend, Yoomi Jeong, is no longer among us. We had stood together shoulder
to shoulder for years fighting to end the U.S. occupation of the Korean peninsula and to build solidarity and understanding between the progressive movements
in Korea and the United States. During those years of struggle we learned to respect and appreciate the devotion, skill, understanding and love that Yoomi brought to this work. We again witnessed her determination as she fought her illness against all odds these last two years....

Please show your support for the Migrants Trade Union and the right of migrant workers in South Korea to form and join trade unions. Send a letter to the South Korean Supreme Court and government telling them to recognize
MTU!!...

As told by most history textbooks in the U.S., the Korean War started with a
June 25, 1950, invasion from the communist north and the freedom-loving U.S. came to the aid of the besieged democratic Republic of Korea in the south. The reality was very different....

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea took a dramatic step on June
27 to prove conclusively to the world that it was disabling its technology for
making nuclear weapons. As representatives of the international media recorded
the event, it blew up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor. The reactor had been shut down and sealed since July 15 of last year....

South Korea has been seeing nightly mass demonstrations for over a month, a
candlelight march of 1 million people on June 10 and a strike wave of key industrial unions. All are connected to a trade agreement between Washington and the current government of President Lee Myung-bak that would allow U.S. beef into the country....

A multinational
delegation from 26 different countries visited the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea at the end of July for a commemoration of the 50th anniversary
of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 U.S.-led war on
Korea. The leaders of North Korea have renewed their efforts to replace
that armi stice with a peace treaty, and to move towards reunification
of the 70 million Korean people. ...

A letter written fifty-six
years ago was recently unearthed by a Harvard historian and is getting a lot
of attention. U.S. Ambassador to Seoul during the Korean War, John J Muccio
wrote the letter to U.S. Undersecretary of State, Dean Rusk. It clearly spells
out the secret policy the U.S. military had of shooting Korean refugees. It
isn't the only evidence, but it is unambiguous and from the highest level,
and because of that, very important....

Please join our campaign to demand U.S. Hands Off North Korea, by http://www.iacenter.org/koreacampaign.shtml to the Bush Administration, members of Congress, the UN Secretary General, and the media. Help us build a national grass roots movement to stop another bipartisan drive to war. ...

The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is an offspring of the U.S. policy of nuclear threat based on its deep-rooted hostile policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK the formal name for North Korea) for over half a century. During the Korean War U.S. considered dropping a nuclear bomb at the border of china and North Korea. ...

An American delegation of peace, labor and social justice activists led by Cindy Sheehan is in Seoul to join the nationwide mobilization against the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement currently being negotiated. The delegation is joining the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) who has called for a General Strike from all sectors of South Korean society to demand that the Roh government seriously address the needs of workers and peasants....

Poison DUst tells the story of three young men from New York who could not get answers for their mysterious ailments after their National Guard unit's 2003 tour of duty in Iraq. A mother reveals her fears about the extent of her child's birth defects and the growing disability of her young husband -- a vet. ...